An Old Hope: Lucas says Hamill, Fisher, and Ford set for Star Wars VII

Luke, Leia, and Han to squeeze in an appearance between shuffleboard games.

Break out the Imperial Walkers with the tennis balls on their feet (joke credit: Lee Hutchinson), because old-timers Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill, Carrie "Princess Leia" Fisher, and Harrison "Han Solo" Ford appear set to reprise their roles in the upcoming JJ Abrams-directed seventh episode of the Star Wars film franchise.

"We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison, or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation," Lucas said. "So I called them to say, 'Look, this is what’s going on.'"

After blurting all that out, Lucas reportedly tried to walk back the statement in advance of an official announcement. "Maybe I'm not supposed to say that," he said. "I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them. I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not."

Nice try, Lucas. You can't unring a fanboy bell that big that easily.

While the news is surely exciting for long-time fans of the original trilogy, the core cast members aren't as young and virile as they were back in the late '70s and early '80s. Fisher is 56 years old, Hamill will be 62 in September, and Ford is already in his 70s. All three stars have kept active in the business into their autumn years, though: Fisher recently appeared as a disembodied voice in Dishonored (among other roles), Hamill has become a wide-ranging voice actor whose roles include The Joker in many Batman-related projects, and Ford is currently filming the upcoming Ender's Game movie (not to mention his role in the fourth Indiana Jones movie... because we'd really rather not mention it).

It's also unclear whether the original cast members will play an integral role in the film or simply stand in as cameos connecting the new movie to its predecessors. Either way, it seems pretty clear that Disney is trying to make sure that all nostalgia circuits are go for their first entry into this venerable franchise.

I am sure that the Original 3 won't be the main characters. You don't really think that JJ would plan a trilogy based on their storylines? But I see nothing wrong with them having important roles in the movie, as they were kind of central to bringing down the empire.

And with exercise and makeup each actor can easily appear 10 years younger.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

This is the kind of pandering fan service that usually breaks, instead of makes, a film.

I rather disagree. This isn't a reboot (well, I sincerely as hell hope it isn't), so it makes sense to have continuity with those characters, especially given how incredibly important they are in the Star Wars universe. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see the plot follow their (Han and Leia's) children, so Han and Leia would figure in, and Luke is obviously the founder of the new Jedi order, so you can't exactly leave him out.

..Or have them as family members of the original characters. Because Star Wars doesn't have the time travel mechanics that Star Trek lore has, they couldn't really pull off a Nimoy-esque role like when Trek was rebooted.

I haven't followed SW in decades; they haven't magically included time travel, have they?

I am really hoping they incorporate some of the expanded universe 'canon' as history, e.g., Thrawn's rise and fall, the Solo twin's arc, etc.

If they mean to use these actors, this has to take place a minimum of 30 years after Jedi, right?

Yea - any word on where the movie fits inside the cannon created by Lucas' official edict in 1996 where he said all officially licensed novelizations were as valid as his own stuff and everything henceforth needed to be chronologically coherent with each other to be official?

I remain unrustled and percieve everything to be fine; it makes sense that they'd at least cameo since they're important figures in the universe. Maybe I'm assuming too much, bur I figured 7+ would be, y'know, in a future where characters aged a bit.

This is the kind of pandering fan service that usually breaks, instead of makes, a film.

I rather disagree. This isn't a reboot (well, I sincerely as hell hope it isn't), so it makes sense to have continuity with those characters, especially given how incredibly important they are in the Star Wars universe. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see the plot follow their (Han and Leia's) children, so Han and Leia would figure in, and Luke is obviously the founder of the new Jedi order, so you can't exactly leave him out.

A cameo appearance is one thing. Making them main or even secondary characters is a whole other can of worms. I hate to be the one to say it, but these actors are old, and they haven't exactly aged gracefully. Seeing them reprise roles from their youths is going to be pretty jarring and may even be quite sad. All three of these actors have moved on with their lives and careers. My guess is the only reason they're returning is a boat-load of money.

I am sure that the Original 3 won't be the main characters. You don't really think that JJ would plan a trilogy based on their storylines? But I see nothing wrong with them having important roles in the movie, as they were kind of central to bringing down the empire.

And with exercise and makeup each actor can easily appear 10 years younger.

I am really hoping they incorporate some of the expanded universe 'canon' as history, e.g., Thrawn's rise and fall, the Solo twin's arc, etc.

If they mean to use these actors, this has to take place a minimum of 30 years after Jedi, right?

Yea - any word on where the movie fits inside the cannon created by Lucas' official edict in 1996 where he said all officially licensed novelizations were as valid as his own stuff and everything henceforth needed to be chronologically coherent with each other to be official?

That's a good question. Wouldn't take his word too much as gospel either, since IIRC, he swore up and down there would not be any episode VII ever. That only changed once Disney bought Lucasfilm and Star Wars.

If they would set this movie during the Yuuzhon Vong (excuse my spelling if that's wrong) invasion I would see this movie in an instant. If they were able to properly and accurately display a true intergalactic war of attrition on a scale the likes of which hasn't been seen before in film.....oooohhh, my spine tingles just thinking about it.

If they would set this movie during the Yuuzhon Vong (excuse my spelling if that's wrong) invasion I would see this movie in an instant. If they were able to properly and accurately display a true intergalactic war of attrition on a scale the likes of which hasn't been seen before in film.....oooohhh, my spine tingles just thinking about it.

Sadly, I very much doubt anything that awesome would actually happen.

I doubt that would work in feature movie format... a Game of Thrones-esque series or mini-series, however... that would be incredibly cool.

The thing is, Fisher and Hammil were never very good actors to begin with. When A New Hope came out it was a no name IP with mostly no name actors. I'm hoping for small, supporting roles (some fan service is fine as long as it isn't the entire point of the project) for all 3 of them.

wjousts wrote:

Quote:

Fisher is 56 years old, Hamill will be 62 in September, and Ford is already in his 70s

And yet Fisher looks the oldest.

She had a lot of drug abuse and other issues after SW. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

This is the kind of pandering fan service that usually breaks, instead of makes, a film.

I rather disagree. This isn't a reboot (well, I sincerely as hell hope it isn't), so it makes sense to have continuity with those characters, especially given how incredibly important they are in the Star Wars universe. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see the plot follow their (Han and Leia's) children, so Han and Leia would figure in, and Luke is obviously the founder of the new Jedi order, so you can't exactly leave him out.

A cameo appearance is one thing. Making them main or even secondary characters is a whole other can of worms. I hate to be the one to say it, but these actors are old, and they haven't exactly aged gracefully. Seeing them reprise roles from their youths is going to be pretty jarring and may even be quite sad. All three of these actors have moved on with their lives and careers. My guess is the only reason they're returning is a boat-load of money.

I disagree. I think there would be nothing wrong with them playing age-appropriate versions of their characters in supporting roles

And you are probably right, the money probably play a role in their decision. I would guess the fact that Lucas will have little-or-no directoral or creative (finger-crossed) input has more weight though.

While I'm for that, as Scarlett's a total hottie, in canon Mara's contemporary with Luke, Leia, and Han (if I'm not mistaken). A roughly 30 year old Mara Jade knockin' boots with 60 year old Luke might be kinda weird. . . That said, Jamie Lee Curtis is roughly the right age.

I am really hoping they incorporate some of the expanded universe 'canon' as history, e.g., Thrawn's rise and fall, the Solo twin's arc, etc.

If they mean to use these actors, this has to take place a minimum of 30 years after Jedi, right?

Yea - any word on where the movie fits inside the cannon created by Lucas' official edict in 1996 where he said all officially licensed novelizations were as valid as his own stuff and everything henceforth needed to be chronologically coherent with each other to be official?

That's a good question. Wouldn't take his word too much as gospel either, since IIRC, he swore up and down there would not be any episode VII ever. That only changed once Disney bought Lucasfilm and Star Wars.

Yea, but that statement wasn't printed on the front pages of hundreds of books printed for a decade or more, the cannon one was.

I really hope that the entire EU is utterly ignored though, I really don't want new films to carry the baggage of all the writers and plots and characters. Let the films just be what they need to be to be good, free from any shackles.

I think there is a big difference between being 'active in the business' and being actively filmed on camera. Of the latter, only Harrison Ford can bring some acting chops.

I am optomistic that they will use these characters as guides going foreward, not the main attraction. A lot of this will fall on the director though. I cannot stress this enough. I have no desire for anyone to put Carrie Fisher back into the gold bikini. Don't ruin that childhood memory for me.

I'm not really sure how much I can believe this since Ford has lamented his role in Star Wars throughout his career. He hated the characters, the writing, and the eventual pop culture status of "Han Solo". Unless he's really desperate for work (which I find unlikely), I can't see why he'd jump in to cameo in a movie franchise he's clearly come to hate over the last 30 years.